I don't know why, but when a successful stage play is adapted for the screen, nine times out of ten, something usually gets lost in translation. There are noticeable exceptions such as Arsenic and Old Lace and 12 Angry Men, but a vast majority of these movie adaptations lacks that certain something that made the stage play such a success.
Luv from 1967 is one such example. Taken from the Tony Award nominated play of the same name, the movie didn't grab me as I felt it should have and I'm at a loss as to why.
Firstly, let's examine the cast. Jack Lemmon always delivers as does Peter Falk and they do here too so it can't be that. Elaine May is by FAR the best thing in the entire movie so it definitely can't be her.
Whilst the film does have some extremely laugh out loud funny moments, the wife swapping plot line is perhaps a little too 'icky' and things sway to and fro far too quickly for us to have had any chance to build up any sentiment, and none of the four leads are particularly likeable characters anyway.
Lemmon plays Harry Berlin, who we first see as a desperate man at the end of his tether about to commit suicide from a bridge over the Hudson. A timely interruption from Milt Manville (Falk), stops him. Harry and Milt were both graduates from the same college 15 years before and despite not having seen each other since, Milt treats Harry like an old and dear friend inviting him to his home for dinner. However, he has an ulterior motive. Milt is in a loveless, (and not to mention sexless marriage with Ellen (Elaine May). Milt has a mistress in the form of the sexy Linda (Nina Wayne), who won't have anything to do with him whilst he remains married. Ellen won't divorce him and Milt feels that if Ellen fell in love with another man, she will give him the divorce he wants so he can marry Linda. He chooses Harry to be the man to throw Ellen's way.
At first the plan works and Harry and Ellen fall for each other and Ellen asks for a divorce to marry Harry. Once finalised, Harry moves into Milt's old house and marries Ellen and Milt Marries Linda, but it takes no longer than six weeks for the bloom to fall off the rose.
Linda quits her job and Milt discovers she is nothing but a lazy slob who spends all day in bed and neglecting the housework. Linda also isn't happy with Milt due to his habit of selling their furniture to two nameless junk dealers and decides to leave him. Ellen discovers that Harry is nothing more than a neurotic bore whose constant fits and strange behaviour borders on insanity and his total lack of social skills has grated right through to her bone marrow to the point she actually despises him.
After a chance meeting between Milt and Ellen, they decide that they still love each other and that the grass was in no way greener after their divorce. They then plot to get back together by trying to set up Linda with Harry, but Harry's social ineptitude soon gives that idea the deep six. Left with no alternative, they lure Harry back to that bridge over the Hudson River in the hopes that they can persuade him to jump to end his perpetual misery as well as their own.
Luv is in no way a 'black' comedy, but it sure gets dark at times with all the plotting and scheming that goes on. Nina Wayne is woefully underused as the fourth wheel in this marital car wreck, as for the most part, the focus remains firmly on Harry, Milt and Ellen.
The scene where Falk sells his office chair to the junk merchants and throws it out of the window only then to have to crouch at his desk to stop his boss from finding out had me in absolute fits and because we all remember him most as the immortal Lt. Columbo, it's easy to forget what a marvellous gift for comedy Peter Falk actually had and it is on fine display here.
Not a bad movie, but not one I will be rushing to watch again any time soon, mainly because of that missing, intangible and unexplainable 'something'.
Enjoy!
Luv from 1967 is one such example. Taken from the Tony Award nominated play of the same name, the movie didn't grab me as I felt it should have and I'm at a loss as to why.
Firstly, let's examine the cast. Jack Lemmon always delivers as does Peter Falk and they do here too so it can't be that. Elaine May is by FAR the best thing in the entire movie so it definitely can't be her.
Whilst the film does have some extremely laugh out loud funny moments, the wife swapping plot line is perhaps a little too 'icky' and things sway to and fro far too quickly for us to have had any chance to build up any sentiment, and none of the four leads are particularly likeable characters anyway.
Lemmon plays Harry Berlin, who we first see as a desperate man at the end of his tether about to commit suicide from a bridge over the Hudson. A timely interruption from Milt Manville (Falk), stops him. Harry and Milt were both graduates from the same college 15 years before and despite not having seen each other since, Milt treats Harry like an old and dear friend inviting him to his home for dinner. However, he has an ulterior motive. Milt is in a loveless, (and not to mention sexless marriage with Ellen (Elaine May). Milt has a mistress in the form of the sexy Linda (Nina Wayne), who won't have anything to do with him whilst he remains married. Ellen won't divorce him and Milt feels that if Ellen fell in love with another man, she will give him the divorce he wants so he can marry Linda. He chooses Harry to be the man to throw Ellen's way.
At first the plan works and Harry and Ellen fall for each other and Ellen asks for a divorce to marry Harry. Once finalised, Harry moves into Milt's old house and marries Ellen and Milt Marries Linda, but it takes no longer than six weeks for the bloom to fall off the rose.
Linda quits her job and Milt discovers she is nothing but a lazy slob who spends all day in bed and neglecting the housework. Linda also isn't happy with Milt due to his habit of selling their furniture to two nameless junk dealers and decides to leave him. Ellen discovers that Harry is nothing more than a neurotic bore whose constant fits and strange behaviour borders on insanity and his total lack of social skills has grated right through to her bone marrow to the point she actually despises him.
After a chance meeting between Milt and Ellen, they decide that they still love each other and that the grass was in no way greener after their divorce. They then plot to get back together by trying to set up Linda with Harry, but Harry's social ineptitude soon gives that idea the deep six. Left with no alternative, they lure Harry back to that bridge over the Hudson River in the hopes that they can persuade him to jump to end his perpetual misery as well as their own.
Luv is in no way a 'black' comedy, but it sure gets dark at times with all the plotting and scheming that goes on. Nina Wayne is woefully underused as the fourth wheel in this marital car wreck, as for the most part, the focus remains firmly on Harry, Milt and Ellen.
The scene where Falk sells his office chair to the junk merchants and throws it out of the window only then to have to crouch at his desk to stop his boss from finding out had me in absolute fits and because we all remember him most as the immortal Lt. Columbo, it's easy to forget what a marvellous gift for comedy Peter Falk actually had and it is on fine display here.
Not a bad movie, but not one I will be rushing to watch again any time soon, mainly because of that missing, intangible and unexplainable 'something'.
Enjoy!